{"id":567,"date":"2012-10-14T08:36:34","date_gmt":"2012-10-14T15:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulmcelligott.com\/blog\/?p=567"},"modified":"2012-10-14T05:11:09","modified_gmt":"2012-10-14T12:11:09","slug":"your-imaginary-friend-does-not-believe-in-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paulmcelligott.com\/blog\/post\/your-imaginary-friend-does-not-believe-in-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Imaginary Friend Does Not Believe in Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet tw-align-right\" width=\"350\">\n<p>Apparently we atheists don&#8217;t exist&#8230; <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/PNmRVURy\" title=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/michaelshermer\/status\/256759462017265665\/photo\/1\">twitter.com\/michaelshermer\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/michaelshermer\/status\/256759462017265665\" data-datetime=\"2012-10-12T14:13:21+00:00\">October 12, 2012<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>Can you spot the logical flaw in this sign?<\/p>\n<p>God, as described by Chistians, Jews, and presumably Muslims, is a non-empirical phenomenon. An atheist&#8217;s non-belief does not affect the existence\/non-existence of the aforementioned deity, any more than the believer&#8217;s faith creates her\/his\/its existence. God is not <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat\" target=\"_blank\">Schr\u00f6dinger&#8217;s Cat<\/a>. There is no box into which we can peek to collapse the probability wave.<\/p>\n<p>Atheists, on the other hand, have a physical reality that is self-evident. Ever heard of\/read a book by\/seen a man named <a href=\"http:\/\/www.richarddawkinsfoundation.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Richard Dawkins<\/a>? How about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zappa.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Frank Zappa<\/a>? <a href=\"http:\/\/www.janeanegarofalo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Janeane Garafolo<\/a>? <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy\" target=\"_blank\">Douglas Adams<\/a>? <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rickygervais.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ricky Gervais<\/a>? <a href=\"http:\/\/www.larrykingcardiacfoundation.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Larry King<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>Just off the top of my head, I was able to name six people who are, by their own statements (or were when they died), verifiably atheist. They indisputably exist, therefore God&#8217;s opinion on the subject is either irrelevant or Pastor Sonny Manuel&#8217;s sign is just another example of empty fundamentalist bumper-sticker reasoning. <\/p>\n<p>Of course, the two scenarios are not mutually exclusive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apparently we atheists don&#8217;t exist&#8230; twitter.com\/michaelshermer\u2026 &mdash; Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) October 12, 2012 Can you spot the logical flaw in this sign? God, as described by Chistians, Jews, and presumably Muslims, is a non-empirical phenomenon. An atheist&#8217;s non-belief does not affect the existence\/non-existence of the aforementioned deity, any more than the believer&#8217;s faith creates her\/his\/its &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paulmcelligott.com\/blog\/post\/your-imaginary-friend-does-not-believe-in-me\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Your Imaginary Friend Does Not Believe in Me&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-venting","tag-religion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Your Imaginary Friend Does Not Believe in Me - Paul McElligott Dot Com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.paulmcelligott.com\/blog\/post\/your-imaginary-friend-does-not-believe-in-me\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Your Imaginary Friend Does Not Believe in Me - Paul McElligott Dot Com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Apparently we atheists don&#8217;t exist&#8230; twitter.com\/michaelshermer\u2026 &mdash; Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) October 12, 2012 Can you spot the logical flaw in this sign? God, as described by Chistians, Jews, and presumably Muslims, is a non-empirical phenomenon. 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